Recently, Sergio Perez has made no secret of his adaptation to Red Bull racing being more difficult than he expected.
In the 2021 season, he came to Red Bull Racing with confidence and vowed to surpass other cars he has driven, but the 2021 F1 season was not as simple as he had hoped.
With the lack of pre-season testing and the compression of Friday's practice session time, Perez clearly ran into problems with how quickly he could adapt to RB16B. Despite some notable highlights, including a front-row start at Imola and a victory in Baku, there seems to be some element of luck that is less convincing. For Perez, the core problem is not that he is not up to the job, nor is it that he lacks experience in the Grand Prix, but that Red Bull's racing philosophy is too foreign to him, it is almost like racing in a new category.
Perez told Motorsport.com: "The way you calculate lap time on this car, the way you fight in unclean airflows, is very different compared to what I've done in the past, which means a change in driving style. In addition, how to protect the tire is also very important. Each vehicle has different requirements for tire heating and cooling. Honestly, it's just a different world, a different category. ”
Perez is no stranger to working with a big team, having a character-building season with McLaren in 2013, in which he learned a lot. But what may be more difficult for him to move to Red Bull is the double pressure that the team gives, requiring a completely different driving style than before him, plus the team is in a position to compete for the championship.
"It's a huge opportunity, but I also realise that I've changed a lot of driving philosophy," he explains, "I came to a very different team, the team philosophy, the engine and the car, so I'm moving on and over time and progressing everything is getting better."
Editor's comments:
Perhaps what Perez lacks most this season is time. He has said more than once that the time spent over the weekend is very limited and he needs to use the fastest speed to determine what he needs to do to make his car faster.
Similarly, Perez found that for the Red Bull RB16B to perform at its best, it had to be driven in a way that made the rider feel uncomfortable. Relative to Verstappen, his ability to balance racing has allowed him to do something with Red Bull that was difficult to match with his former teammates.
Obviously, Red Bull racing is really difficult to control, and the previous Ricardo, Coviat, Alben and Gasley have not been able to adapt to Red Bull's racing philosophy in a relatively short period of time. The specific possible reasons are as follows:
1, more drivers' driving styles are different from Verstappen's, the above driver driving styles may be more like Hamilton, on the fast speed of the corner, out of the corner speed is slow, the so-called fast in and out of the price style, this style of the driver requirements are relatively low, and the requirements for the car are very high, the stability of the car in the corner has become the key to the problem, because when the car into the corner at a faster speed, the aerodynamic effect is more obvious than when the corner is slow, so the driver can be more "unscrupulous" when entering the corner, at that time, Aerodynamics will give the car more downforce and grip;
2, the design philosophy of the car is very different, Red Bull's car focuses on the short wheelbase, high inclination bottom plate design, in order to play the red bull racing car chassis advantage, in terms of aerodynamics, you need to make a certain degree of compromise, so that the speed of the car into the corner is slower, in exchange for faster cornering speed, at this point, with Hamilton and Verstappen in silverstone station in and out of the corner speed can be seen the difference between the two cars, and paul Ricard is also obvious, whenever in the corner, Hamilton can quickly approach the front Verstappen, but after the turn, Verstappen quickly widens the distance with the rear car; in addition, the car's cornering performance depends on the ability of the car to resist understeering when entering the corner, and the ability to resist oversteering when cornering, and oversteering and understeering For the RB16B car, the window is too small, and it is difficult for the driver to find this narrow window.
3, the individual's adaptability and objective conditions are limited. Perez is a good driver, but not good enough to threaten Verstappen, who has the ability to quickly find drivers and car desserts, while Perez is less capable of this; and as he says, it is true that the shortening of pre-season and practice time is a bit difficult for familiar and unfamiliar cars, but that should not be the main reason.